A little of this, a little of that, that’s my story these days. I’m still reading the Jo Gar short stories, but decided to take a break from them and tried some pulp science fiction, and got tired of that, and tried a non-fiction ebook from the library, The Lion in the Living Room – How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World by Abigail Tucker, which was just okay, or maybe it was just me. I’m also reading Aliens: Bug Hunt, a story collection of Alien stories, and from the TBR I got Orbital Decay by Allen Steele. I’m about 40 pages into it and so far not much is happening. It reads a lot like Arthur C. Clarke at his didactic best. That’s fine, but I want some action to go with the detailed science, especially as the thing is set at a space station in Earth orbit.

Barbara finished Good To the Last Kiss by Ronald Tierney, which she said was interesting and well written. She liked it and says she’ll seek out other books by Tierney. Now she’s started on Two Lost Boys by L. F. Robertson. It’s a first novel, a legal mystery.

16 Responses to Current Reading: Cats & Bugs & Lost Boys

Read Jukebox Kings by Doug Allyn.. Takes place in Detroit in the early 60’s. The Bridge by Stuart Prebble. Liked both. Also read The Berlin Project by Gregory Benford. A alternative history novel about building the bomb during ww2. With a couple of exceptions all the characters are real people. The main character being Benford’s father in law. I enjoyed it but a little heavy on the science side. Also Cold Cotton. A new Hap & Leonard novella by Joe Lansdale. And reread Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West.

As usual, you’re zipping through the books. You say you’re not a fast reader, but even being retired, you read a lot of books (I’m retired to, but I don’t read nearly as much as you, though I read every day.). That Benford sounded interesting when I read about it. I read Day of the Locust many years ago.

You know how sometimes you find a book you really love and race through it? Well, that happened this week, only to Jackie rather than me. It was Sherrilyn Kenyon’s League book, BORN OF VENGEANCE.

For me, not so much. I read Walter Tevis’s 1981 collection of (mostly) SF stories, FAR FROM HOME, which was OK if not great. Also (a library download) a horror/Lovecraftian novella recommended a few weeks ago by George Kelley, Caitlin R. Kiernan’s AGENTS OF DREAMLAND, which I enjoyed, if not as much as George did. Also finished A SYMPHONY OF ECHOES (also a library download), Jodi Taylor’s second in her Chronicles of St. Mary’s series.

I’m also reading the previously mentioned story collections, including Lee Child’s collected Reacher stories and THE HIGHWAY KIND, as well as Pamela Paul’s bookish MY LIFE WITH BOB.

I’m down to the last two library downloads and have started a good one, Jonathan Maberry’s PATIENT ZERO, first in his Joe Ledger series. Ledger is a Baltimore detective recruited into the Department of Military Sciences to stop terrorist attacks, this first one being a disease that turns people into murderous zombies. If you like thrillers, check it out.

I liked that second Jodi Taylor book, and intended to go right on through the series, but have gotten sidetracked. I may have read number 3, or maybe not. The Ledger would be interesting except for the zombie part.

I’m working my way through Daniel Abraham’s THE DAGGER AND THE COIN series. All five volumes are Big Fat Books (500+ pages) so they take a little time. I finished the second book featuring THE VINYL DETECTIVE. And I’ve been reading my daily short story from various collections and anthologies.

A bit late to the party, but I read Bill Pronzini’s VIXEN, a 2015 Nameless novel. This one is an expansion (and revision) of his novella FEMME, which was published by Cemetery Dance in 2012.

I came across a stash of Robert B. Parker books and zipped through four of them. BLUE-EYED DEVIL is the fourth Virgil Cole/Everett Hitch western, lotsa gunplay, senseless killing, and rambling on about what it means to be a man (hey, it’s Parker). SCHOOL DAYS and NOW & THEN are Spenser novels, the first dealing with a high school shooting massacre (the grandmother of one of the self-confessed shooters thinks the boy is innocent and hires Spenser), the second has Spencer and Susan reexamining a dark period in their pasts while both are under threat by the leader of a terrorist-funding organization. Again, lotsa gunplay, (a tad bit more sensible) killing, and ramblings. The best of the four is THE BOXER AND THE SPY, a YA mystery in which two 9th grade students delve into the apparent suicide of one of their classmates. The plot stretches things a bit and at times Parker is a bit ham-fisted trying to portray high school characters but Ally (the female lead) more than makes up for it. For once Parker has given up a female character we can root for.

The rest of the week was taken up with various short stories, but nothing really outstanding. Currently I’m half-way through Loren D. Estleman’s latest Amos Walker, THE LIONESS IS THE HUNTER. After that, there’s John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard’s DOMINION, the closing book of their Invaders series, waiting in the wings.

Woke up this morning and it was raining like stink. There probably won’t be a lot Memorial Day cookouts here today. I hope your day is sunny and the food delicious,

Those Spensers, are all non-Parker books, yes? I ran out of steam with his last few and have not tried any of the “as by” ones. I have an Estleman on the TBR, but it’s a Holmes novel. After a very hot (90s) few days today it’s overcast but that will burn off and we’ll get about 80. I’ll be grilling chicken, Barbara is making potato salad and deviled eggs. Pie for dessert. Hope your meal is as delicious.

We’ve been cool and rainy the entire month of May, it seems, though not as bad as some areas, I suppose. We had three days of 90+, but otherwise it’s been 50s and low 60s instead of a more normal low-to-mid 70s. Today is raining (big surprise!) and the high will be 60. It should be 74.

Most of the past 10 years, in fact, we’ve had temperatures in the 80s on Memorial Day.

This has been a very atypical May here weather-wise. It’s 59 and raining now (more your Seattle-Portland type weather, at least how we picture it) and won’t get warmer, even if the rain does stop as predicted.

One positive: they stopped talking about droughts a few weeks ago. The reservoirs have overflowed past 100% full. Everything is in bloom.